Happy Thought.—If you want to be revenged on somebody, and don't mind expense, have his portrait painted with all his defects glaringly rendered, and present it, as a mark of esteem, to his family.
On his fiftieth birthday give him a bust of himself to be placed in his hall. Depend upon it you've punished him.
Jenkyns Soames, our Professor of Scientific Economy, was talking of the Zoological Gardens.
“I dispute,” says he, “the fact of the Hyæna laughing.”
“Why?”
“Why? Solvitur ambulando, or rather non ambulando, for I've stood in front of his cage for half an hour, and I've never seen him laugh once.”
This was repeated to Mrs. Boodels.
“Yes,” says she, “that's very probable. But when Mr. Jenkyns went away * *”
Milburd tried to cap this by asking as a conundrum “why the Hyæna wouldn't laugh in your face?”——
As Mrs. Boodels rose, the ladies had to go out too, so no one stopped for the answer. He caught me alone in a corner and told me what it was. I think he said that it was because the Hyæna was an Hy-brid animal. He explained that he meant “high-bred.”